The Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Stoere, on Monday expressed concerns about Elon Musk’s involvement in domestic political issues outside the United States.
Stoere believes that Musk’s significant social media influence and economic power could interfere with the internal affairs of other democracies and allies, urging Norwegian politicians to distance themselves from such actions.
Stoere told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that it is alarming for someone with such extensive access to social media and considerable economic power to engage so directly in the internal affairs of other nations.
“I find it worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and huge economic resources involves himself so directly in the internal affairs of other countries,” Stoere told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
“This is not the way things should be between democracies and allies,” he said.
If Musk were to involve himself in Norwegian politics, the country’s politicians should collectively distance themselves from such efforts, Stoere added.
However, Germany’s government had accused Elon Musk of interfering in its upcoming February election after he threw his support behind the far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD) in X posts and an opinion piece published by the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
German leaders accused Musk, who claimed that AfD is the only party which can “save” Germany, of trying to “influence the federal election” as the country heads towards snap elections amid political turmoil next month.
Meanwhile, a senior UK minister recently also condemned attacks by Elon Musk on the British government as “ridiculous” and “disgraceful” in an escalating row with the world’s richest man and ally of US President-elect Donald Trump.
The chief executive of Tesla Inc. has made a string of vitriolic posts on his social media platform X about a British child sex abuse scandal in recent days. Musk claimed on Friday that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was “complicit in the rape of Britain” and should face charges for his actions as the country’s chief prosecutor.